Project to Support Business Facilitation in Mali

Project

Financing of the economy
Governance

Crédit : c.hug sur Flickr — Credit: c.hug on Flickr

Project start date: December 23 2019

Status
Closed
Project end date: May 31 2023
Financing amount (Euro): 1,3 M€
Country and region: Mali

The Project to Support Business Facilitation aims to support the economic and partnership-based role of the Directorate-Generals of Customs and Taxes for the economic development of Mali.

Following the serious political and security crisis in 2012-2013, Mali is developing strategies to stabilise and develop its regions with support from the international community.

Due to its landlocked position, it is difficult for Mali to integrate into international trade. The security situation and structure of the economy, with an informal sector accounting for over half of gross domestic product (GDP), are additional barriers to the economic development of the country.

In this context, improving the business climate to promote private sector development is a key vehicle for economic growth. The Project to Support Business Facilitation is part of this approach. It aims to support Mali’s efforts in terms of economic development and the creation of decent jobs.

Making tax and customs administrations central to economic development

The Project to Support Business Facilitation in Mali aims to support the economic and partnership-based role of the Directorate-Generals of Customs and Taxes, by making these administrations stakeholders in the economic development of the country. The actions implemented will simplify procedures, improve service quality for users, enhance the performance of human resources and give the institutions modern and streamlined working tools and effective and transparent management methods.

The project’s action is based on three components:

1) Incentives for the formalisation of the economy and support for the fight against fraud.

2) Support for economic operators, in particular for SMEs through simplification and certification processes.

3) Support for efforts for regional integration and to facilitate and secure international trade.

After the completion of the project, Mali will have an environment conducive to business creation and development, regional and international trade will be facilitated and secured through dematerialisation and partnership-based approaches, and the intervention capacities of the customs administration will be strengthened.

Three operational components

To achieve these objectives, the project has been based on three components:

Component 1 – Contributing to the establishment of an environment conducive to business creation and development (business climate): implementation of an active user-focused policy to simplify tax procedures, elimination of constraints to formal job creation, improvement in relations with users.

Component 2 – Facilitating and securing regional and international trade (trade facilitation): support for the dematerialisation of customs procedures and a faster transit through customs, support for the deployment of the status of Authorised Economic Operator (AEO), support for the Business Advice Unit (BAU).

Component 3 – Strengthening the intervention capacities of the customs administration (capacity building): reinforcement of the controls of petroleum products and capacity building of customs to fight against fraud.